CreMo Pep Talk - Week 3
Greetings! For those of you who don’t know, my name is Heidi (aka silverbelle1220), and I write The Bradford Legacy. But I’m taking a quick break from that and my CreMo goals to bring you a pep talk for week three.
"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." -Jack London (1876 - 1916)
There is nothing worse than staring at a blank piece of paper.
No, wait. Scratch that. There is nothing worse than staring at a blank piece of paper when facing a deadline. And with the end of CreMo fast approaching, I’m sure there are a few of you who are in this very situation at this moment.
Writer’s block always seems to pop up at the worst moments. When you need it most, your Muse seems to have taken a vacation to Twikkii Island, and left you behind.
Click to view(I wish my Muse was as awesome as these ladies).
Can you really blame her? As writers, we should be nurturing and caring for our Muses, but too often, we mistreat her. We demand her to show up when it’s convenient for us, expect perfection from the get go, and we overtax her by taking on seemingly impossible projects like NaNoWriMo, and SimStoCreMo. No wonder she refuses to cooperate!
But all is not yet lost! There are still twelve days left to CreMo where I sit on the East Coast of the USA, so there is still time to coax your Muse into giving you a little help. I’ll share with you a few strategies that have been helpful to me at one point or another. Hopefully, one of them will help you bring your Muse out of the mythological equivalent of the Witness Protection Program.
First, if I’m stuck writing for a particular character, I try to imagine what they would do in an outlandish situation. For example, let’s take…
Matthew, my generation 4 heir and legacy villain. He was evil and manipulative, and I’m glad he’s dead. When I was trying to figure out what type of a wife I wanted him to have, I’ll admit that I was a bit at a loss. What helped me realize that Jan would need to be as bad (if not worse) than Matthew was trying to imagine him with a sweet, mild woman. It just didn't work. Matthew didn't have anyone on his side (for good reason), and he needed a sidekick of sorts. So Jan became as conniving and scheming as he was. And it made for excellent plot, if not happy times for my legacy characters.
Another thing that helps me when I’m struggling is music. Yes, it’s cliché. But it’s cliché for a reason - it works! Now that my legacy is into more modern times, I try to find songs that my characters would listen to on the radio. I picture them dancing to them, or hearing them in the background of their daily lives. Or I’ll find a song that somehow reminds me of a character, and listen to it as I try to tell their story. It helps me to get into their heads just a little bit more.
If you have the time and opportunity, go out and people watch. Listen to what people are saying, and watch what they’re doing. As you do so, make up stories that explain why they’re acting the way they are in that moment. The more you train your Muse to help you with these little exercises, the more likely it is that she’ll show up when you need her for Serious Plot.
Take a shower. Seriously. All my good ideas seem to come to me when I’m in the shower. But get one of these or something like it first. Because you know that amazing idea will go down the drain before you get out and have a chance to write it down on a regular piece of paper.
Just start writing. Something. Anything. Then that darn piece of paper’s not blank anymore, and it loses some of its intimidation factor. Remember that a lot of the time, what your Muse brings you will look like a huge mess at first. Your job is to clean it up into something fit for publication.
Your Muse is out there - you just need to know how to find her. I hope that you’ve gotten some ideas on how to coax her out, and that she finds you and gives you the flash of inspiration you need soon. And please feel free to share your own ideas on finding your Muse as well - I know I'm always open to new strategies to try. So go out there and follow Jack London's advice, but maybe forgo the beating of your your Muse over the head with a club; after all, you do need her help if you're going to reach your CreMo goals. And you will!